Vardogr
by Dragonflyr
Summary: Years have passed and Aurora has grown into adulthood surrounded by safety and family. When she encounters a visitor from a doomed parallel universe, however, she must face how things could have been and decide how far she is willing to go to save her own world from the same fate. Takes place in Alydia Rackham's "Fallen Star Universe."
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This story is the product of too many nights spent reading and re-reading Alydia Rackham's Lokane stories. If you haven't read them yet, go do so now as this is somewhat of a fanfic for a fanfic and will make much more sense if you are familiar with her work. This story in particular is an expansion of her "Fallen Star Universe" though it includes elements of and references to the "Lokistone Universe" as well. _

_Many, many thanks to Alydia Rackham for giving me her blessing to pursue this wild adventure. _

* * *

"Go then, there are other worlds than these."

- _The Gunslinger_

Stephen King

"No," she whispered.

"Don't!"

A concussive blast hit her in the chest, tossing her back like a rag doll. Her last image of her home was a purple-skinned beast towering over her parents, raising his hand for a final blow - her father standing defiant with his arms outstretched and her mother laid out on the ground behind him.

She passed through some kind of barrier, suddenly feeling that she was simultaneously under water and being buffeted by a strong wind. Then the barrier came again and she passed into normal air. Her shoulder impacted the packed dirt hard, driving the air from her lungs. She grunted and the sight was knocked from her for a moment.

The taste of metal flooded her mouth. She had bitten her tongue. Sputtering, she spat blood and struggled to push herself up with one hand. Her left arm was shattered and curled uselessly against her chest.

"No," she mumbled, struggling to get her feet under her. She fell to her knees twice before finally gaining her feet and stumbling towards the shimmering tear between worlds that hovered in the air above her. "No...wait," she begged, reaching out with her undamaged hand. Then another wave of energy blinded her and blasted her onto her back once more.

This time it took much longer for her to regain her senses. Her head throbbed and her vision was warped - too sharp and too harsh. She blinked at the dirt, seeing something silver and oddly familiar in the dust beside her. With a great effort she managed to raise her cheek from the ground and tried to gaze over her shoulder, squinting blearily.

The opening between worlds was gone. Only open sky greeted her.

Her heart plummeted into the ground beneath her and her breathing shivered. She felt suddenly cold all over as all the remaining strength fled her limbs. Her head dropped back into the dust and she let her eyes drift closed.

Then she knew no more.

**(xxx)**

Aurora jerked upright. Her mismatched eyes flew about her room as she dragged in desperate lungfuls of air. The dull glow haloing the edges of her curtains told her it was morning, though only just. A shiver racked her frame and she realized she was drenched in sweat, her entire body tangled in her damp covers. She raked her fingers through her damp hair and held her breath until her heart stopped hammering against the back of her breastbone. When it had finally calmed its rapid pace she let the air escape her lips and took in a much more measured breath.

She had experienced nightmares before, though much more rarely than her cousins. This, however, had felt more real than any dream. A phantom pain danced through her left arm, sending out sharp stabs whenever she flexed her elbow. She shook the limb and it began to fade, but not entirely.

The sharp thrill of a bird on her balcony served to remind her that morning was fast approaching and she had best rinse the sweat from her if she wanted to look presentable at breakfast. It was early yet, but sleep would not return after such a rude awakening.

Aurora chose, instead, to make use of the extra time to run a full bath and wash the nightmare away entirely. She did not rush, but even so, by the time she was dressed and wandering out of her rooms the castle was only beginning to stir.

She stole through the halls, keeping to shadowy corners whenever possible. A game invented in childhood that had now become old habit: how far could she go without being spotted? These days she often made it to the feasting hall without alerting a soul. The early hour only dampened the challenge further and she easily stepped up to the long table without having met another person. A satisfied smile tugged at her lips as she strode across the room to claim her usual seat. The table was already laden with food that would not grow cold, laid out by some invisible hand in the hour before dawn.

The sound of small running feet alerted her that she wasn't alone long before the owners had turned the corner into the hall. She bit her lip against the urge to grin and hurried on silent feet behind a pillar. Invisibility would be unnecessary with these two, and so she merely waited.

Two boys came rushing into sight, clearly racing one another. Both had brilliant golden hair that shone like spun gold in the morning light. They raced neck and neck, despite the fact that one was taller and clearly a bit older. Outstretched hands reached for the table and slapped the stained wood at the same moment.

"Beat you!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"I touched it first!"

"You did not!"

"Liar!"

"Cheat!"

The exchange quickly dissolved to shoving which gave way to grabbing and then full out wrestling as the two fell to the ground growling like angry cats. Aurora wound magic around herself like a shroud, warping her frame to be taller and bulkier and staining it blue. She opened her mouth and when she spoke her voice was dull and husky, vibrating through the room like a drum.

"Fee, fi, fo, fum..." Both boys froze and turned towards the pillar in time to see a Frost Giant amble out from behind it. The Giant's crimson eyes burned like coals. "I smell the blood of an Asgardian!"

The high-pitched screams of two terrified boys filled the room and they both bolted from the hall, if possible even faster than they had entered. Aurora managed to hold onto the illusion for a beat longer - until two golden heads poked around the corner with fearful round eyes. Then her hold on her laughter slipped. The illusion dissolved like waves on water and she was left standing as her normal self, half doubled over with her arms wrapped around her middle. Her voice lightened back to its normal pitch and rang against the stone walls.

"Auri!" the oldest boy cried, scowling as left his hiding place and came back into the hall. "Don't do that!"

"Don't make it so easy," Aurora shot back, clearing her throat. She straightened to lean her shoulder against the pillar. The laughter had subsided now but a grin still split her face and her green-and-brown eyes danced with mirth. "Besides, you know Frost Giants are nothing to be afraid of."

The boy only huffed and crossed his small arms across his chest.

"We know that. You just surprised us," he muttered. His little brother came forward much more cautiously, still watching Aurora warily. The smile softened on her lips and she moved forward to kneel before the smaller boy.

"Oh, Magni, I didn't really mean to frighten you. It was just a bit of fun, that's all." She tousled the boy's hair. He turned liquid blue eyes on her, peering up through his golden bangs. It wasn't fair, really. She never had a chance.

"Oh, all right. You win. I'm sorry," she said, gathering the boy into a tight hug. Magni wound his arms around her neck in an answering embrace.

"How come you apologize to him and not to me?" the other boy demanded.

"Because, Modi, he's cuter than you are. I thought that was obvious." Aurora responded. Modi glared while his brother giggled against her neck. She pulled back, placing a kiss on Magni's forehead.

"Now, I think it's time both of you found your seats," Aurora said, shooing them both towards the table. "And no more running!" she added when they both, predictably, broke into a run.

Shaking her head, Aurora stood just as a new set of footsteps echoed down the hall. These, too, she knew by heart and it was no surprise to her when her uncle strode through. Like his sons, his own golden mane shone magnificently in the morning light streaming through the room. Even dressed casually to break fast with his family, the King of Asgard was a lion of a man. His gargantuan yawn only served to completed the image.

"Good morning, Uncle," Aurora greeted, stepping forward to plant a light kiss on his bearded cheek.

Blue eyes still half-clouded with grogginess, Thor blinked at her and then glanced at his sons over her shoulder.

"You cannot possibly tell me the three of you are up to no good already. Not so early," Thor said. Even his voice was still rough with sleep.

"You'd best believe it," Aurora said with a cheeky grin. He let his eyes roll skyward before continuing on his way to his seat at the head of the table. Aurora winked at the boys who giggled in return. Finally, she wound her way to her own seat, across the table from Magni and Modi, and watched the rest of the family file in.

Sif came next, circling the hall to greet husband and sons before taking her place at the foot of the table. The years had done nothing to dull her dark beauty and somehow, rather than softening her, motherhood had given Sif a new fierceness of spirit, both on the battlefield and off. Unlike Thor, the early hour seemed not to effect her at all and her eyes shone sharp and alert against the morning light. Aurora smiled her greeting and inclined her head politely to the Queen.

Not long after the Queen came Thor and Sif's eldest child, Thrud.

Thrud was closest to Aurora's own age, though still a few centuries shy of her coming of age. She had lately begun to exchange her girlish looks for a more womanly figure that only promised to grow more beautiful as the years wore on. Her fine white-gold hair hung nearly to her waist, bound in a graceful braid, and thick lashes framed eyes as blue as a sea breeze. She took her seat at Thor's left, beside Aurora, and murmured her good mornings. Where Sif was all hard edges, Thrud was gentle curves.

The table filled more steadily following Thrud's arrival. Steve Rogers, unchanged as ever, took his place beside the boys, accompanied by his lady, the ever-lovely Nanna. Just after them came Aurora's grandparents the former King and Queen of Asgard, seating themselves on either side of Sif. At last there were only two empty spots remaining to Aurora's left.

For once, it was the sound of a melodious voice that drifted ahead of the approaching footfalls. There was only one person in all of Asgard who could be so talkative so early in the morning. The centuries had done little to change Jane Foster, neither in body nor spirit. As she came into sight, Aurora could see that her long brown tresses, so unique amongst their little group, were gathered to cascade over one shoulder. Now they bounced gently in the light as she waved her arms, talking animatedly.

"-and the color of the clouds! I'm telling you, that was no natural storm."

"You'll hear no argument from me." Loki's voice was rich with unspoken laughter, one palm raised as if in defense. Dressed as ever in warm greens, Loki led his wife to the table and tugged her chair out for her before taking his own seat. Aurora beamed a greeting at both of her parents while reaching for her glass. Coffee was an addition that Jane and Steve had insisted on long ago and while not all of the Aesir had a taste for it, Aurora and Thor usually partook of more than their fair share.

"What storm?" Aurora prompted over the rim of her cup.

"Didn't you hear it?" Modi asked around a mouthful of toast.

"It was really loud!" Magni added, throwing out his arms for emphasis.

"A dimensional rift. I haven't seen one in years," her mother said, digging into her own plate.

"What does that mean?" Aurora asked, sitting up straighter. She had nearly forgotten her dream but now the feeling of passing between barriers came back to her and sent prickles down her spine.

"A spot where the fabric between dimensions has worn thin. Thin enough to tear open," Jane elaborated. Aurora glanced across the table at the boys and had to bite the corner of her lip to suppress a smile. They were both frowning hard at Jane, forks suspended in the air above their plates.

"We are not certain that is what it was," Loki admonished gently.

"Of course it was!" Jane shot back. "It looked just like before, when the fabric between worlds was threatening to tear entirely. That storm was certainly smaller and more isolated, but it was the same phenomenon."

"That damage was repaired long ago. It is unlikely we would be unaware of it if the situation were repeating itself," was the succinct reply.

"If I still had my equipment I could tell you for sure."

"Yes, but you don't. More's the pity."

Aurora turned her attention back to the boys across from her. They were both still puzzling over Jane's words. She could practically see the gears stuttering behind their eyes. She let her glance sweep the table, assuring herself that everyone else was suitably occupied, and then puffed out her cheeks and let her eyes cross. She waited one beat, two - then Magni finally noticed and dropped his fork in startled laughter. Modi snorted as well and quickly turned his head. Aurora let her features relax, but not quickly enough.

From the corner of her eye she caught her father's glace. He wore a look that was at once affectionate but also admonishing. It was a look that said, "You are of age now, act like it."

"Perhaps you should tutor Thrud in her riding today, Auri," Loki suggested. Ah, there it was. Her punishment.

Aurora closed her eyes briefly to keep her features schooled. Thrud, on the other hand, had not yet mastered the art of tact.

"And what if I already had plans for the day?" Thrud questioned. Sif raised her eyes but Aurora beat her to it.

"Said plans didn't happen to involve fawning over Fastir in the gardens, did they?"

Thrud's sapphire eyes narrowed dangerously and red seeped over the bridge of her nose.

"You could do better, you know," Aurora added, taking another sip of her coffee.

"I don't want to do better," Thrud hissed back. Aurora nearly choked on the dark liquid. Thor actually did. The boys burst into fresh peals of laughter as Thor emerged from his cup coughing and dripping coffee from his beard. Aurora closed her eyes and held her breath, counting slowly to ten until the urge to laugh had subsided. When she opened her eyes again, Thor was clearing his throat. Again, however, it was Aurora who salvaged the situation.

"You know, speaking of Fastir, I did hear something I thought might interest you. Of course, I heard it from Gilla and you know she never has her gossip quite straight." Aurora paused deliberately to take a delicate bite of toast, careful only to glace at Thrud out of the corner of her eye. Everyone was watching them now. Aurora basked in the attention.

"What? What did you hear?" Thrud said in nearly a whispered, leaning closer. Aurora chewed slowly and dabbed at her mouth with her napkin before finally turning to face he young cousin.

"Apparently, according to Gilla mind you, Fastir's got his eye on Nal. You know, the one who can make her mare jump so high?"

Thrud's mouth worked silently for a moment and the crimson on her face bled onto her cheeks. For a moment she looked like she might yell, then she seized both of Aurora's hands in her own and leaned closer until their noses were only a few inches apart.

"Auri! You're the best rider there is in the Nine Realms. I'm rubbish at it. I can hardly trot, let alone jump. Please, you must help me!" Her eyes were wide with earnest pleading and for a long moment Aurora could only blink at the abrupt shift in mood. Her ploy had worked even better than expected. Still, she couldn't give in quite yet.

"I don't know," she said, half turning to look sideways at her cousin. "Perhaps I had plans for the day."

"You did not! And besides, Uncle Loki said you have to take me riding. Right, Uncle?"

That was not exactly what Loki had said, but Aurora turned to him all the same. With her cousin at her back she finally let her grin slip across her face. That look was back in his fathomless green eyes-part pride and part exasperation.

"For goodness sake, take the poor child riding," he said with a careless wave of his hand. Aurora didn't fail to noticed that Jane was sitting with her head bowed, eyes boring into her plate. It was the only way her mother could keep from laughing.

"Fine," Aurora said with a suitably dramatic sigh. Thrud squealed. Aurora couldn't stop a cringed at the sound.

"If we're going riding, I'll have to change my skirt!" Thrud announced before pushing her chair back and bounding from the room. Aurora was finally free to roll her eyes, letting them settle on Sif.

"You're welcome, your Highness," she said.

Sif let out a soul-deep sigh and closed her own eyes.

"That girl...sometimes I don't know what we'll do with her," she said.

"She's young yet," Frigg said calmly, reaching out to cover Sif's calloused fingers with her own cool ones. "Give her time. She's of an age where she must try on many roles, searching for the right one."

"She's right, you know," Steve Rogers agreed with a nod. "And take it from someone who's compared a few generations, all girls go through a boy craze." Aurora snorted indelicately.

"_I_ was never like _that_," she muttered. Then, as if to prove just how unladylike she could truly be, she filled her mouth with more bacon than was strictly polite.

"No, _you_ would rather throw yourself at any danger you came across," Jane retorted with a teasing smirk. "It's a wonder you haven't given all of us gray hair by now." Aurora had the good grace to wince, but offered her mother an innocent smile all the same.

"Does this mean you'll be too busy riding to teach us today?" Magni spoke up. Aurora swallowed and then smiled gently at him.

"Probably, yes. But tomorrow I'm all yours," Aurora promised. Modi huffed and Magni lowered his eyes for a moment, but then they both nodded and turned to their father.

"We're finished. May we be excused?" Modi questioned. Thor looked them over with a critical eye, waiting just long enough for them to squirm impatiently, and then nodded.

"Fine. Go. You are free to inflict mischief on the world," Thor teased. Both boys threw themselves at him for a farewell hug, racing around the table to do the same to Sif before disappearing down the corridor.

Aurora felt eyes on her and lowered her voice to explain. "They're convinced they can learn magic if they just try hard enough."

"Well good for them," Jane said with a nod. Aurora shook her head and turned to face her mother. She caught sight of her father mirroring her actions on Jane's other side.

"That's not how it works," Aurora and Loki said at the same time. Jane only smiled.

"Auri! Are you coming?" Thrud's annoyed call echoed through the room. Aurora sighed and washed the last of her food down with another mouthful of coffee.

"If you'll excuse me, the Princess bellows," she said loftily. She stood and pushed her chair in, but her Father's hand caught her elbow so that she paused by his seat.

"Try to have a care. She doesn't have your skill and you know it," Loki said. "Don't push her too hard just because you're annoyed."

"Really, I'm insulted," Aurora gasped, letting her left hand press dramatically to her breast. "I would never take out my frustrations on dear, sweet little Thrud!" She held the affronted air in place until Loki raised one delicate eyebrow at her. Then her brow relaxed and her down-turned lips tugged upwards in a foxy grin.

"I'll be nice, I promise," she assured him, leaning down to kiss his pale cheek. "We'll be home for supper."

"See that you are, Bean," he said, squeezing her elbow gently before releasing his grip. Aurora made her farewells to the rest of the table and hurried out to meet her cousin.

**(xxx)**

Thrud followed Aurora into the stables, wrinkling her nose at the odor of sweet hay mixed with manure. Aurora went straight to the corner stall which housed a great gray stallion. The horse thrust his nose at her in mild greeting and she brushed her fingers against the velvety warmth of his muzzle. Thrud hung back, eying him and twisting her fingers. The gray huffed a puff of hot air against Aurora's hand, stamping a hoof.

"Shadowfax won't hurt you," Aurora said without looking at her cousin. She kept petting, keeping her voice calm and even. "You are uneasy, so he is uneasy. Don't be afraid and you will have nothing to fear."

"Easy for you to say," Thrud muttered. "He likes you."

"Of course he does," Aurora replied smugly. She patted his nose once more before turning to survey the other horses. "Let's see, let's see..." she muttered to herself, gauging their personalities at a glance. "Ah, here we go." She paced a few stalls away towards a thick bodied fjord standing complacently in his stall. Thrud trailed after her, tilting her head at the horse.

"He's so...bulky," Thrud said with obvious disapproval. No doubt she was thinking that this was surely not the elegant creature that had helped Nal steal Fastir's imagined attentions. Aurora closed her eyes briefly so her cousin couldn't see how they flicked towards the ceiling.

"It's the style of the breed," she said, opening the stall and reaching for the oiled leather saddle that hung on the back wall. "He's sturdy and dependable and, most of all, he's gentle. I'm not explaining to your royal parents how you broke your leg because I let an unpredictable horse throw you.

"That wouldn't be your fault," Thrud said.

"I'm the older one. Everything you do is my fault," Aurora said simply.

Thrud folded her arms, a sure sign that she had more to say, but she chose instead to exercise a rare blaze of wisdom and kept her mouth shut. Aurora turned her attention to securing the saddle, pulling at familiar straps and murmuring gently to the palomino gelding. He hardly needed the reassurance, however, barely even raising his head as she worked. Once she was satisfied, she led him out into the sunlight and handed the reins off to her shorter cousin, instructing Thrud to wait while she ducked back inside and readied Shadowfax. The gray watched her approach with round eyes, but remained obediently in place when she opened the stall. She felt a swell of pride, knowing that this particular stallion was considered wild even by Thor's standards. Only Loki and Aurora were permitted to ride him, a fact Shadowfax himself made clear to anyone else who dared attempt to mount him. He shuffled his hooves impatiently now and then, but otherwise waited quietly while Aurora's deft fingers flew over the saddle's buckles. When she finally straightened, he tossed his head as if to say, "Let's get on with it then!"

Aurora grinned at him and led him out into the bright mid-morning light.

**(xxx)**

Aurora bent lower against the horse's neck. His ragged breath rang in her ears, punctuated by the swift tattoo of his heavy footfalls. Every bound echoed through her own bones, vibrating through her very being. Her fingers tightened around the leather reigns, wrapped in strands of long gray mane.

The wind tugged her hair out behind her in waves, begging her to push Shadowfax to his full speed.

"Auri! Wait up!"

A sharp sigh puffed past her lips and she dropped her forehead onto Shadowfax's silky neck. Her grip stiffened on the reins, tugging to slow him down. The stallion let out a snort of annoyance and tossed his head. He continued at his gallop until she tugged again, only then finally beginning to slow.

"I know, I know," she muttered against his mane. "I'll make it up to you later."

Shadowfax fell from a gallop into a canter and finally to a swift trot. Aurora twisted in her saddle to watch her cousin. Thrud had chosen to ride sidesaddle in her skirt, despite Aurora's protests. She held herself far too stiff in a misguided effort to keep her balance. She was lucky that her gelding's gait was even and he was not inclined towards bursts of speed, or she would have fallen long ago.

"You'll have better balance if you lean into him more!" Aurora called out as she swung Shadowfax towards her cousin. Thrud's brow furrowed as she tried to adjust herself. Even leaning forward over his neck, however, she kept the stiff poster that made it impossible to absorb his movements.

"I always hated sidesaddle. You'd have an easier time of it if you rode normally like me," Aurora chided.

"You're wearing trousers!" Thrud shot back.

"We're the only ones out here. No one would see," Aurora pointed out. Thrud only narrowed her eyes and Aurora gave up with a shrug.

"Fine, suit yourself," she muttered, drawing Shadowfax up beside her cousin. Wide fields of sweet grass stretched before them, the tall stalks waving against their horses' knees.

"That's where that storm was last night," Thrud said, risking her balance by stretching out a hand to point. Aurora followed her gaze to the bump of a small hill.

"You saw it?" Aurora asked.

"I can't believe you slept through it. It was so loud! Louder even than Father's storms when he's in a mood," Thrud said. Her lips curled into a shy grin at the last comment. Aurora had little choice but to return the expression.

"Let's go have a look," Aurora said, urging Shadowfax to take on a bit more speed. He eagerly obliged.

"At what?" Thrud wanted to know, but Aurora was already leaving her behind again. She felt somehow magnetized, drawn towards the hill that loomed before them. It was all she could do to keep from snapping the reins and letting Shadowfax fly into a gallop again. So strong was the siren call of curiosity - and something else.

Though it was torturous, she kept Shadowfax slow enough that Thrud was not more than a length behind. The younger girl gripped the reigns too tightly, slowing her horse even more, but Aurora no longer cared for playing tutor and said nothing. Her attention was fixed on the hill.

Finally Shadowfax's hooves fell on slanted earth and they crested the small rise. Aurora leaned up in the saddle to see what lay beyond, even though logically she knew she would see nothing but more rolling grasslands.

What she saw instead sent ice to the pit of her stomach. She pulled Shadowfax up sharply, nearly causing Thrud to run her gelding right into him. Thrud opened her mouth to complain, but the words died on her lips. Aurora never even looked at her.

The hill was actually the crest of a bowl shaped valley that stretched out and away from them. Within it, filled from edge to edge, were the remains of a battle that was never fought.

Broken spears and tattered standards, shields and bits of owner-less armor: the spoils of battle poked out of the long grass. And yet none of the grass was trampled, as if all of this had simply dropped out of the sky. A sharp cry drew their attention skyward where they could see carrion birds circling.

"What...what is this?" Thrud whispered.

Aurora's only response was to click her tongue and steer Shadowfax forward.

"Auri!" Thrud cried. "Auri, don't go down there!"

Aurora ignored her cousin's concerns as she guided Shadowfax forward. The gray flicked his ears in agitation but did not protest, walking down the slope and into the impossible battlefield. Aurora's eyes swept over the scattered bits of war, but they offered no more explanation up close than they had from far away.

As she rode deeper into the valley the grass began to give way in patches, leaving hard packed dirt beyond. Without a river, there wasn't enough water to sustain a green carpet for the whole valley. Shadowfax drew up sharply without her command. She blinked and leaned up to see over his head.

A body lay at his feet, crumpled on the bare earth. She thought at first it was a man, the black hair was cropped so short, but the lithe figure and the shape of the breastplate told her otherwise. The woman's left arm was bent at a queasy angle and though her hair was yet long enough to fall across her face it didn't completely hide the dark shadows of bruises. She was dressed completely in black, battered armor and all. The contrast with her pale skin made her look like a corpse indeed.

Except that an unsteady breath disturbed the dark strands that had fallen across her lips.

"Thrud!" Aurora shouted as she slipped from the saddle. She didn't need to turn to know that her cousin was still perched fearfully on the hilltop. "Thrud, get down here! I need your help!"

She crouched beside the stranger and brushed the hair out of her battered face, fingers flying to her neck. The pulse was thready, but mercifully there.

"Hold on a bit longer, whoever-you-are," Aurora whispered. "We'll get you to Eir and then you'll be all right." She glanced up at a discarded helmet a few feet away, covered in rust-colored stains.

"And then maybe you can tell us what happened here."


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: I cannot thank you all enough for the wave of encouragement I've received for this story. Aurora has taken up residence in my brain, but it wouldn't be half as much fun to bring her to life without you. Thank you again and I hope you continue to enjoy her adventure!_

* * *

"I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us."

_- The Secret Garden_

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Aurora pushed Shadowfax as fast as she dared, glancing back over her shoulder to be sure the gelding was keeping up. After much cajoling (and finally threatening) she had managed to get Thrud down into the valley. Together, they had hoisted the wounded stranger over the saddle of the gelding like a sack of flour and lashed her in place with rope that Aurora produced with a clap of her hands. It was far from ideal, but they had no time to summon help.

Then Aurora had pulled her cousin onto the saddle behind her, utterly ignoring Thrud's complaints about indecency when her skirt rode up to her thighs, and dug her heels into Shadowfax's sides. He gave a snort of protest at the extra passenger but wasted no time charging out of the valley. The palomino, whose reins were now tied to the gray's saddle, followed suit.

Now they raced back across the fields towards the palace, skirting the city and heading for the gardens. Aurora watched the outer walls grow larger with maddening slowness and resisted the urge to continually glance behind her. The gelding simply did not have her stallion's speed and watching him would not make it otherwise.

The journey seemed to take ages, but finally the walls loomed near and then they had passed through, into the gardens. Aurora called out a warning for anyone who might get in their way and rode almost all the way to the stone steps before pulling Shadowfax up and leaping from the saddle. As soon as her feet hit the grass she turned and half tugged Thrud off the horse's back, ignoring the girl's indignant squeak.

"Go, run and get Eir," Aurora instructed before Thrud could find the words to complain. "Run!" she cried when Thrud only stood there. The urgency in her voice finally kicked her cousin into action and Thrud obediently turned to flee up the stairs into the castle.

Once she was gone, Aurora turned to the gelding. A dagger of ice materialized in her left hand as she approached. She easily sliced through the ropes binding the gelding's passenger. They slacked and fell away, coiling at her feet. The stranger, laying lengthwise across the saddle, began to slip forward nearly as soon as they were gone.

The dagger melted into air with a flick of her wrist and Aurora reached up to grip armored shoulders, trying to hold the woman in place. The limp body had shifted during their frantic ride, however, and now that the ropes were gone gravity was taking over. Aurora's glanced up, saw the stranger's limp legs come up over the saddle and then the unconscious body was somersaulting in her grasp. The momentum overbalanced her and Aurora was knocked onto her back. The woman landed heavily on top of her.

For a long moment, Aurora could only lay there, struggling to pull air back into her shocked lungs. When finally she could draw breath once more, she pushed herself up on her arms and looked down at the body on top of her.

The woman had also landed on her back, laying across Aurora with her head and shoulders on Aurora's stomach. The stranger's pale face was lax, wreathed in a mess of short black hair. Such a relaxed, peaceful expression gave her an appearance of youth that seemed at odds with her battered, bloodstained armor.

Aurora's fingers moved on their own, grazed a pale cheek. A shock of electricity shot through her at the contact and she drew back, frowning. She could almost have dismissed it as a shock of static and nothing more. Except something in her bones sang in answer.

"Who are you?" she whispered. The pale young woman offered no response and a moment later Aurora's speculating was cut short as the sharp rhythm of running feet on stone made her look up. Her cousin was back, and with the fiery haired master healer in tow.

"Eir!" Aurora called. She gently lifted the stranger's shoulders enough to scramble out from under her body.

"What happened here?" Eir asked, gathering her skirts up to kneel beside her patient.

"I...she slipped when I untied her," Aurora said, gesturing to the gelding.

"You should have waited until you had help," Eir scolded. Aurora swallowed the 'Yes Ma'am," that sprung to her throat. Of everyone she knew, only Eir had the uncanny ability to make her feel perpetually a child.

"Can you help her?" Aurora asked instead.

"That remains to be seen," Eir said. She bent down and felt around the shoulders of the battered black armor. Her fingers caught on two latches, manual releases to an otherwise magical set, and tugged. The breastplate came away with a click. The moment Eir pulled it clear the rest of the armor dissolved, splitting into loose scales that clattered against one another as they slipped free only to disappear before they hit the grass.

The stranger was left in a high necked black tunic and black trousers. Without the armor her frame looked much thinner - more fragile.

"Help me with her, will you? And be careful of that left arm. Get her shoulders," Eir instructed. Aurora nodded and slipped her hands beneath the stranger's arms, watching as Eir took her legs. They lifted together and began slowly towards the stairs.

"Thrud, take the horses back to the stables," Aurora instructed as they passed her cousin still standing on the steps. Thrud's wide eyes flew to Shadowfax.

"But-"

"Just do it. Get a stable boy to help if you must," Aurora retorted and then they had left Thrud and the outside world behind and entered into the dimly lit belly of the castle.

Aurora and Eir carried the stranger to the healing rooms in silence. Once inside, Eir nodded towards a bed and Aurora obediently led the way, gently shifting the woman's upper body onto the soft mattress.

"Thank you. We can take it from here," Eir instructed, turning to bark out orders to the white-clad ladies who flurried toward the bed. Aurora extricated herself from the sudden onslaught of healers and circled back around to Eir.

"Actually, I was hoping to stay until she woke up," Aurora said, wearing the most innocent smile in her repertoire.

"No. You'll only be a distraction," Eir said dismissively. The older woman stepped towards a cabinet in the center of the room that held most of her herbs and potions: healer's magic.

"Yes, but, there's something about her. I'd really like to stay," Aurora tried again, following the older woman to the cabinet. She glanced back at the bed long enough to see scissors fly and a flash of pale skin as the tunic was cut away. She turned her back quickly on the scene.

"You are just like your father. You will go when I say you should go," Eir bit out, sparing Aurora a sharp look. On another day that might have been enough for Aurora to give in, but something inside of her said this was too important.

"I'm the one that found her!" Aurora protested, crossing her arms in front of her and straightening her back until she was looking down slightly at the healer. Although not as tall as her father, her heritage had afforded her the advantage of towering over most of her peers. Eir slammed the cabinet door and turned the full heat of her narrowed eyes on Aurora.

"Aurora Lokidottir, we are not speaking of a lost puppy!" Eir growled. It took all of Aurora's will not to take a step back. "Go." Eir pronounced the word as though it had physical force. Indeed, Aurora nearly moved out of simple self preservation. And yet a deeper instinct kept her rooted to the spot.

"Will you at least let me know when she wakes?" Aurora prodded, dropping her arms and folding them behind her back in a more respectful stance. Eir threw up her arms in exasperation.

"Gods above, child, yes! Now go!"

Aurora grinned and fled before Eir could change her mind.

**(xxx)**

Jane ran her finger across the leather spines. Behind her, sunlight reflected off the circular pool known as Loki's Looking Glass, lighting the room with splintered shafts of light.

She had come up here searching for some of her old research journals, which were housed on a low shelf in the corner. She had yet to even approach the shelf of her own work, though, turning her attention instead to Loki's numerous volumes containing all of his observations and discoveries of Asgard's night sky.

Her finger stopped on an especially thick tome, one that appeared to have enjoyed more use over the years than many of the others. Jane hooked her finger over the top of the binding and pulled the book free of the shelf. She opened the leather cover and ran her hand over the first page almost reverently.

_The Constellations of Midgard_

Jane thumbed through a few pages, a gentle smile curving her lips as her eyes skimming words she had long ago committed to memory. The handwriting was as familiar as her own and she took just as much comfort in the strong, clean strokes of ink as she did in the words they formed.

Then a pair of arms crept around her waist and made her gasp. Her heart rocketed into her throat. She snapped the book closed in her hands and clutched it to her chest in a reflexive effort to keep from dropping it.

"Loki!" she breathed. "You startled me!"

"I would be lying if I said my intentions were otherwise," he purred in her ear. He pulled her against his chest and she reflexively leaned her weight into him, her body still stiff with shock.

"Jerk," she murmured affectionately. Loki laughed against her neck and she shivered at the puff of warm air across her skin. Then his soft lips caressed the spot behind her ear and she shivered again.

"Feeling nostalgic?" he wondered when he saw the book in her hand. He barley paused the assault on her neck as he spoke, letting his lips linger over her pulse before kissing along her jaw.

"Something like that," Jane admitted, relaxing into his hold and tilting her head for him on instinct. "What I really came up here for was my old research notes - but I'm guessing you already knew that."

"Hmm." He laid one last kiss on her cheek and then straightened to rest his chin on the top of her head.

"I was thinking about what you said this morning," Jane mused quietly, "about how we repaired the damage to the fabric between dimensions a long time ago. It got me thinking about just how long ago that really was. How many years - how many centuries."

"Jane..."

"It's funny how little I think about it these days, but then I think about Earth - Midgard - and how much things have changed there."

"Jane..."

"I don't even know anyone there anymore. These days Aurora visits more often than I do and-"

Loki's arms left her waist and his strong hands gripped her shoulders. Jane sucked in a breath as she was spun, somehow managing to keep her balance. Then he pressed his lips against hers and her mind stuttered to a halt. He broke away only to press in again, tilting his head to brush his nose against hers and deepening the kiss. Jane's eyes fluttered closed and for the second time in as many minutes she nearly dropped the book in her hands. When they disengaged they were both breathing a little hard.

"You only did that to shut me up," she accused. What heat there might have been in her narrowed eyes was extinguished by the smirk tugging at her lips.

Loki's only response was to grin wolfishly at her and lean down to kiss her anew, wrapping his arms tight about her shoulders. Jane responded in kind, shifting the book to one arm so she could snake the other one around him and tangle her fingers in his fine hair.

"Mom? Mother, are you-"

Aurora pushed opened the door and stumbled to a halt, wide mismatched eyes taking in the scene. Jane jerked her head back, ending the kiss. She felt herself blush and tried to pull away entirely, but Loki refused to release his grip on her.

"Oh...never mind," Aurora said, reaching one hand towards the door.

"Auri. We weren't expecting you back yet," Jane managed to say.

"Obviously," Aurora replied dryly. "Why don't I just come back later?" She took a step back, half into the hall.

"You don't have to-"

"No, really. You two looked pretty busy so-"

Loki let out an audible sigh and finally dropped his arms from around his wife.

"Aurora, what is it?" Loki demanded. Aurora stepped back into the room, simply watching her parents for a moment, as if weighting her words.

"Mom was right," Aurora said carefully. "About the storm. At least, I think she was. Thrud and I found something. Well...more like someone, actually." Loki and Jane exchanged a quick glance.

"I think you had better start at the beginning," Loki said. Aurora launched into a hurried account of the impossible battlefield that she and Thrud had discovered at the site of the previous night's storm. She told them about how out of place it all looked and how none of the ground around it was disturbed. Then she told them about the strange woman, how she was badly wounded and how she and Thrud had brought her back for the healers.

"Will she be all right?" Jane asked. Aurora leaned her hands against the marble rim of the pool, staring at her own reflection.

"I think so, but honestly I don't know," she admitted with a shrug. "I know her arm was badly broken. I'm not sure about the rest because...well..."

"Eir kicked you out," Loki supplied. Aurora's shoulders fell and she nodded. He came around the pool and put one hand on her shoulder. "Show us where you found her and we'll see what we can see."

**(xxx)**

The return ride to the valley was much more enjoyable than the first trip, for this time she was able to let Shadowfax fly. Aurora's entire world narrowed to his great huffs of air, the pounding vibrations of his legs, and the musky odor of hay and sweat that surrounded him. She pressed her cheek against the prickly smooth hair of his neck and for a time they ran as one.

Only when they approached their destination did she pull back into herself. Just as before, the valley seemed to call out to her and by the time she and Shadowfax pulled up on the hilltop Aurora's blood was singing with exhilaration. She turned her flushed face to watch her father's stallion, Einar, crest the hill beside her. Aurora fixed her gaze on her parents' faces as they took in the desolation below them. Loki's dark green eyes widened and then darted over the refuse of war littering the valley. He sat up straighter in the saddle, his jaw tightening. Jane, sitting before him, drew in a sharp breath. She touched her fingers to her parted lips, her dark brown eyes skimming slowly from side to side.

Aurora could feel the tension in Shadowfax's frame beneath her and knew that while he would descend into the valley once more if she commanded it, he would not do so willingly. Instead, she slipped from his back and patted his flank, feeling the flesh shiver under her touch.

"I'll show you where we found her," she said as Loki slid from Einar's back and gripped Jane by the waist, lifting her to the ground as well. Aurora led her parents down into the valley-turned-battlefield, picking her way through the scattered remains.

As she went, Aurora glanced over her shoulder to find that her parents were no longer walking together. Jane's natural curiosity had carried her away from her family and deeper into the valley. She moved easily through the field, bending for a closer look at pieces of abandoned armor and reaching out to feel the fabric of tattered standards. As Aurora watched, her mother set aside the princess of Asgard and became instead the scientist of Midgard.

Then she turned and caught sight of her father. Rather than follow them into the valley itself, Loki was slowly pacing the perimeter of the wreckage. His head was turned away from the debris entirely, vivid eyes drinking in the walls of the valley and the sky above it. His hands were clasped before him, his right thumb drawing slow circles in the palm of his left hand. She saw him lift his chin and draw a deep breath through his nose and knew that he was sensing for magic.

She licked her lips, testing the air herself, but found nothing.

Aurora paced to the patch of dirt where they had found the wounded woman, nearly in the center of the valley. A black tar stain marred the place where her blood had soaked into the thirsty earth. Aurora stood just beside it and looked up.

In her mind's eye she saw the gaping wound in the sky, a shimmering window to another world. And the world she glimpsed beyond was darkness beneath a blood red sky, soaked in the stench of fear and death.

A hand touched her shoulder and Aurora blew out a breath she hadn't know she'd been holding. She spun on her heel, to face her mother. Jane drew her hand back slowly, her brown eyes filled with concern. The scientist was gone once more, replaced by the mother.

"You're pale. And cold," Jane observed quietly. Aurora swallowed and lowered her eyes to the dark stain in the dust.

"I'm fine," she whispered, forcing heat back into her limbs to prove it. She cleared her throat and gestured at their feet. "This is where we found her. Laying right here." Jane looked down at the bare patch of ground and then craned her head to look up at the sky above them.

"If I had to guess, I'd say the storm was directly above us," Jane said. Aurora glanced up as well. The sun had begun to slip towards the horizon and the undersides of the clouds above them were dyed a fiery orange.

"Magic had no part in this," Loki called and both women turned to see he had finally broken the boundary of the battlefield and was walking swiftly towards them. He paused beside them and let his wary gaze slide over the darkened ground at their feet. "It's best we don't linger. Whatever caused this, it was far from natural." Loki turned his brilliant green eyes to his daughter. "There's nothing more to learn here. We'll have to wait for your guest to fill in the gaps."

Disappointment curdled in Aurora's stomach. She had not realized until that moment, but she had harbored the secret, childish hope that her parents would provide the answers that eluded her. She swallowed hard and nodded, pulling on a smile the way others might don a coat. Then she led the way back up the hill to where their horses grazed.

Aurora swung herself up onto Shadowfax and turned him towards home in one skillful motion. She kicked him into a hard gallop without even waiting for her parents to mount Einar. She hoped that the rush of the ride would help clear her mind, but the image of the tear still hung heavy behind her eyes and refused to be banished by the pull of the wind or the thundering of Shadowfax's hooves.

Aurora's mood only darkened further once within the walls of the palace. She ran straight to the healing rooms, but the apprentice who cracked open the door would only say that their guest had not awoken and Aurora was not to enter, on strict orders from Eir herself. Nanna informed them at dinner that the woman's condition was stable and she was sleeping off a drought Eir had given her for the pain while they reset her arm. Eir were confident she would awaken some time the following day.

That news, however, did nothing to ease Aurora's frazzled mind and soon after dinner she retired to her room to alternate between pacing and throwing herself at her bed only to get up and repeat the process. A million questions buzzed like bees in her brain and made it impossible for her to even contemplate rest.

After several hours of this, Aurora sat up and glanced at her curtains. Still dark. She flopped back onto the bed with a loud groan. In a final desperate attempt to stop her mind from racing she forced her eyes closed and began naming all the constellations, imaging their configuration in the darkness of her eyelids. When she had run through the full list of constellations in the Asgardian sky she moved onto Midgard and began again.

At last, somewhere around the southern hemisphere's winter sky her mind finally began to grow fuzzy, just as the first glow of light caught the edge of her curtains.

**(xxx)**

Something heavy dropped onto her side and Aurora gasped, flung rudely into the waking world as the air was shocked out of her lungs.

"Wake up, Auri!"

"M-Magni?" She gasped, frowning as she squinted at the boy who now lay on top of her.

"You've been asleep _forever_," he accused.

"So you decided to jump on me?" she retorted, pushing at his shoulder. He rolled off to her side but stayed on the bed.

"Come on! You promised!"

"Promised what?" she groaned.

"That you'd teach us magic today," a new voice said sternly. Aurora's eyes flew to the foot of the bed where she found Modi standing with his arms crossed, frowning at her. Unlike his brother and sister, Modi had inherited Sif's coal-black stare and now it was trained mercilessly on Aurora. He turned and gripped the curtain in one hand, flinging it opened wide. Aurora hissed as bright light flooded into the room, blinding her.

"Get up. It's already late," Modi complained. Aurora groaned and tugged the covers up over her head.

"Little monsters, go away," she moaned. "I didn't sleep last night."

"But you promised!" Magni said again, pushing at her shoulder.

"I've told you both before that you can't force yourselves to do magic," she muttered from under the blankets. "It's something you have to have in your blood. So go find something else to do and let me sleep."

"But you and Uncle Loki can do magic. So maybe we can too," Magni argued.

"Yes, but we're not related to you. Not really," Aurora said, her voice muffled as she pressed her face into her pillow.

"So? You're still our family," Magni shot back. Aurora slowly pulled the covers off her head and turned to see his little face draw with solemn conviction. She bit her lip to keep from smiling.

"That's very sweet of you, Magni, but you're missing the point," she said gently.

"Yeah, dummy," Modi said. "She means they're not blood related to us. But Grandma Frigga can do things too. So maybe we inherited it from her."

"Yeah, maybe from her!" Magni cried, latching onto the idea. "So please, will you teach us today like you said? Please!"

Aurora looked between them, Magni pleading and Modi foreboding. She sighed and threw her head down on the pillow once more.

"Give me ten minutes," she said.

"Yay!" Magni cried and sprang up to jump on her again. Aurora grunted and resisted the urge to kick him off her bed.

"All right, but get out now or I'll change my mind!" she cried. Magni scrambled over her and both boys ran from the room, slamming the door behind them. Aurora sighed and ran a hand over her face, trying to calculate how much coffee she would need to imbibe before facing their boundless energy.

**(xxx)**

Aurora's midnight black hair hung unbound down her back as she sat in the shade of a tall oak in the gardens. Her cousins sat facing her, their eyes squeezed closed. Magni's nose was wrinkled in concentration and the rosy tip of his tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth. Modi's eyebrows were drawn in a deep scowl.

"I don't feel anything," Magni complained, one blue eye popping opened to stare at her.

"Me neither," Modi sighed.

"Maybe we're doing it wrong," Magni said, ever optimistic. "Explain it again."

Aurora leaned back against the tree, gazing up into the branches and the dazzling sunlight that filtered through the leaves. She remained silent for a long moment, considering her words.

"Magic is all around us," she said. "An elemental part of the world. It's like the air: always there but not in a way that makes you think about it." She lowered her chin to regard her two would be students. "When do you feel the air?"

"I hate riddles," Modi muttered but his brother straightened, his blue eyes sparkling.

"When it's wind!" Magni declared. Aurora smiled gently at him.

"That's a bit what magic feels like," Aurora said. "Like wind...and also a bit like water at times. Something malleable and incorporeal." Both boys scrunched their noses at that and she rolled her fingers through the air, casting about for simpler terms. "It is something that's there but not there. Solid but also fluid or sometimes wispy like smoke. Something that you can form, but which also has its own shape that it will try to maintain."

"So how do we feel that?" Modi wanted to know.

"Most people can't," Aurora said with a shrug. Magni wilted like a flower, his shoulder's slumping and the bright expression on his face crashing into disappointment. "But maybe you can," Aurora hurried to amend. "Maybe you inherited it from Grandma Frigg, like Modi said." Neither boy looked too sure of that outcome anymore. Aurora sighed and pushed away from the tree, scooting a bit closer. She reached out with both of her hands and grasped one each of theirs

"Listen. I know I'm not explaining this well but it's hard to describe. You'll know it when you feel it."

"But we still don't know what we're looking for," Modi argued. Magni just frowned down at the grass, frustration etched into his furrowed brow.

"Look for what doesn't belong," Aurora instructed. "Magic is tricky like that, trying to blend in even when it can't. Close your eyes and feel the world around you. The healthy spring in the grass beneath you, the smell of the flowers in the air, the buzzing of bees and the songs of birds: take it all in, every sound, every smell, every feel of everything around you. And once you have recognized all of that, you'll start to sense a little deeper. Hear a little more, taste a bit of what you smell, see what's around you even with your eyes closed. That's when you'll recognize it. The thing that doesn't belong. The feeling that's not quite a sight or a smell or a taste or a sound or the touch of anything that should be in this garden. It will be different and wild and strange."

Magni and Modi gazed up at her with wide eyes, both of them squeezing her hands tightly. She noticed that both boys had stopped breathing. She smiled and tightened her fingers around their small hands.

"Once you've felt that - the stranger in the garden - then we'll know whether or not you can feel magic."

"Aurora! Aurora, are you down there?" Aurora blinked and released her hold on her cousin's hands, getting swiftly to her feet and stepping out from under the tree. Her grandmother stood on the balcony above them, bathed in brilliant sunlight. Aurora shaded her eyes to look up at her.

"I'm here, Grandmother. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, dear. I just thought you'd want to know, Eir says your guest has woken up."

Aurora's heart thudded against her ribs. It was suddenly hard to draw breath and her sleepless night no longer seemed to matter. She turned back to the boys and paused to find both of them sitting straight backed with their eyes closed once more. Unlike before, however, both of their faces were relaxed now, their eyes only lightly closed.

"Listen, boys-"

"Shh," Magni hissed, his brow lightly creasing.

"We're feeling for the stranger," Magni whispered. Aurora blinked and had to press her hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh.

"Well let me know what you find. I'll be in the healing rooms!" Modi may have shushed her again, but she couldn't be sure as she was already running towards the nearest door.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Thank you all again for your lovely reviews! I try to respond to them all, but with the holidays I fear I only got to about half of the last bunch. So to anyone I missed, thank you so much for your encouragement and kind words. And please drop a review if you're enjoying this story, they are such excellent fuel for my muse._

* * *

"Dwarves are not heroes, but a calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don't expect too much."

_- The Hobbit_

J. R. R. Tolkien

For once, Aurora did not care who she met in the hall. She abandoned her usual sneaking game entirely and instead ran flat out for the healing rooms. She skidded to a stop outside the wide golden doors, panting for breath. Her heart hammered in her throat and her whole body tingled with anticipation. Even so, she forced herself to take a few steadying breaths, smoothing the front of her green dress and tucking her hair behind her ear.

Then she grasped the handle and tugged the door opened, taking measured steps into the room.

The circular chamber was ringed with beds, all of them empty except for the bed directly on her right where the stranger lay. Eir stood beside the bed, trying to hand a cup to the woman. The woman herself barely seemed to notice, her eyes darting about the room. Her face was drawn in something that wasn't quite fear, ashen down to her cracked lips. An ugly bruise crawled over the left side of her face, a splash of purple over her cheek that fanned out to splotchy black across her eye. Her dark clothes had been exchanged for a white gown that seemed terribly out of place against her colorless skin.

"I don't understand," the woman whispered and even her voice sounded damaged, husky and hoarse. She attempted to sit up further in the bed, wincing as she did and now Aurora could see that her left arm was bound to her chest in a sling. Aurora drew closer and the woman's eyes flew toward the movement, locked onto Aurora's own.

Gray. Her eyes were gray as the roiling clouds of an ocean storm. Aurora felt an electric shock pass through her and suddenly found she could not move under that gaze. Her breathing stalled. All she could do was stare into those fathomless gray depths.

If she had had any color to lose, Aurora felt sure it would have drained from the woman's face. Her throat worked visibly and then Eir was gripping her shoulder, pulling her back against the pillows in case she passed out. The fiery haired healer set her cup aside and ran her cool fingers over the stranger's forehead instead.

"What's your name, dear?" she prompted gently.

The woman blinked and finally tore her gaze away. Aurora's entire body relaxed and she drew in a deep breath, only now realizing she had stopped breathing.

"What?" Aurora heard her whisper, her rough voice hesitant as if waking from a dream. Slowly, those gray eyes turned to seek out Eir.

"Your name," Eir said again. For a long moment all the woman did was stare at her. Aurora got the feeling she was trying to determine if Eir was really standing there, if any of this was really happening. The look in her dark eyes was so incredulous and disbelieving. Finally, she licked her dry lips and cleared her throat.

"Ella," she whispered, and then repeated louder, "My name is Ella."

"Well you're lucky to be alive, Lady Ella," Eir responded. She took up the cup again. "Here. This will help with the pain and the thirst."

Ella slowly reached out with her uninjured arm. Aurora didn't miss the slight tremor to the limb. She expected their guest to sip from the cup, but instead Ella tilted her head back and down the whole potion in one go. Then she sank back into the pillows and closed her eyes.

"How did I get here?" The question was only a whisper, almost spoken to herself, but Aurora stepped up to the foot of the bed anyway, catching Eir's knowing look from the corner of her eye.

"My cousin and I found you, unconscious in a battle field. A field where no battle was ever fought," Aurora said softly. Those gray eyes opened once more, staring hard at Aurora.

"I suppose I owe you my life then," Ella said softly. One corner of her mouth quirked into an almost smile, though the expression didn't reach her enigmatic eyes. Aurora would have been trapped in that gaze once more had Eir not cleared her throat at that moment and broken the spell. Aurora's attention flew to the older woman and she felt her face grow hot when she recognized the pointed look the master healer was giving her.

"Oh! I'm sorry, let me introduce myself," Aurora hurried to cover her mistake. "My name is Aurora, daughter of Loki son of Odin. And you are in-"

"Asguard, I know," Ella said, her gaze flicking up to the high ceiling above them. "But...I can't be." She set her jaw and closed her eyes once more. She tried to move her left arm again, winced, and brought her right palm to her forehead instead. "My head feels so heavy," she whispered.

"That will be the sleeping draught," Eir murmured. Two pairs of eyes flew to the master healer.

"You said it was a pain killer!" Aurora gasped.

"You've obviously suffered quite a shock," Eir said to her patient, ignoring Aurora entirely. "You need your rest or you will do yourself further harm." Aurora opened her mouth, but the indignant words died on her lips when she heard Ella's broken rasp of what was undoubtedly supposed to be laughter. She shifted her gaze and sucked in a sharp breath. Ella was smiling up at Eir; it was the saddest smile Aurora had ever witnessed. Her cracked lips tilted upwards gently and her dark eyes shimmered, though no tears fell.

Even Eir was taken aback by the expression, staring back at her patient with wide eyes. Then Ella's eyelids slid closed and her breathing evened out.

Eir, still visibly shaken, took up the cup and blustered past Aurora to busy herself with another task. She didn't even bother to chase Aurora from the room.

Aurora herself stayed where she was, watching Ella sleep for several moments. She couldn't help but feel that their brief interview had given her far more questions than answers. Her eyes caught on the table by the bed, where Ella's black tunic lay folded. The healers had cut it off of her, but apparently had retained enough sense to save it. Aurora stepped around the bed and took up the dark fabric, running her fingers over the tear in the cloth. She could feel the tattered magic within the fibers of the shirt, frayed and left to spark like severed power lines. Aurora glanced at the sleeping woman again, knowing that Eir's potion would keep her out for at least a few hours.

She folded the tunic over one arm and turned for the door.

**(xxx)**

Aurora leaned against the wall of the self-propelled lift, rising through the tower that her father had claimed as his own centuries before her birth. She knew well where to find him at this time of day: seated in the sky-map room at his desk in the corner, poring over documents for the Magic-Science Academy. At this time of year he would be especially busy, reviewing lesson plans and teaching methods for the upcoming term.

Sure enough, when the lift stopped and she stepped out into the hall she found the door to Loki's Looking Glass stood ajar, the flickering light reflected on the pool within spilling out into the hall.

Aurora crept closer, soundlessly pushing the door wider. Her father sat with his back to her, bent over his desk just as she had suspected. A brass lamp sat on the corner of the desk, offering better light to his work. From the set of his shoulders she knew he was frowning down at the documents before him, lost in thought.

A grin tugged at her lips as she stepped into the room, silent in her soft soled boots. She stopped just behind him.

"You'll go blind squinting like that," she chided loudly. He jumped visibly and turned to face her.

"Auri," he sighed. His shoulders relaxed and he blinked at her a few times. It was barely afternoon but already she could see the tell-tale crinkle at the edges of his eyes, the slight redness that meant he had spent too many hours peering at cramped text. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Oh, just to bother you and distract you from your work. What else would I want?" she replied. She moved around the marble pool and then hoisted herself up to sit on the rim, crossing her dangling feet at the ankles.

"Don't be cute," he replied and there was real annoyance in his tone now. A warning. "I have far too much work to do." Loki turned back to the scroll spread out before him and began reading once more. Aurora tilted her head, watching intently.

"Our guest woke up," Aurora said. "I spoke to her a little just now."

"Mhm," Loki hummed, taking up his pen to scribble a few notes. Aurora huffed and sat back with her hands on the marble rim for support.

"You can try to ignore me but I'm sure you won't succeed," she said simply. She kicked her feet so that the heels of her boots thudded gently against the marble basin. Then she licked her lips and began to whistle, the sound echoing off the stone walls and the still water behind her. It was a song she'd heard him sing hundreds of times in her childhood - one that she knew would pierce through his concentration - about a northern wind and a fair lady.

To his credit, she got through two verses before he finally set his pen aside and turned just enough to stare at her with one baleful green eye.

"And what did you learn from our guest?" Loki asked, one eyebrow raised to let her know she had succeeded in capturing his undivided attention. Aurora broke off whistling and shrugged.

"Not much, actually," she admitted. "She was pretty out-of-sorts, though I can't exactly blame her. Eir gave her another sleeping draught to calm her down. Hopefully she can answer some real questions later this afternoon." She tilted her head up to look at the hole in the ceiling. "I got her name, though. It's Ella."

Loki sat up a little straighter and turned to face her fully. Aurora was busy scrutinizing the clouds, however, and didn't notice the change in his demeanor.

"I came to ask you for a favor, actually," Aurora admitted, dropping her chin to look at him once more. She brought her hands together and pulled them apart. Blue light flashed and then she was holding a tattered black garment. She held it out, waiting patiently for her father to take it.

Loki reached for the fabric and turned it over in his hands. She watched him run his fingers along the tear, knowing he was feeling the same rent strands of magic that she had felt earlier.

"Is this...?"

"Ella's. Yes," Aurora nodded. "The healers had to cut it off of her."

"They've ruined it," Loki said and there was a hint of remorse in his voice. Aurora watched him for a moment, licking her lips in anticipation. She forced her shoulders to relax and sat up straighter.

"I be Brokk could fix it," she suggested. Loki's eyes flashed up at her, suddenly honed and boring into her. She resisted the urge to wince. He had always seen right through her, recognized her dangling ploys on instinct. She stared back coolly, not ready to give up the game just yet. "He made my own armor, and yours and Uncle Thor's as well. And this tunic seems reasonably similar."

"So go ask him," Loki countered, tossing the torn tunic back. Aurora caught it in one hand and lowered it to her lap.

"And why should he do anything for me?" Aurora asked. "I've never met him myself and a dwarf would care nothing for my status. But, he knows you."

"Knowing and liking are not nearly the same thing, Bean," Loki responded with a sardonic grin. "Brokk owes me nothing and likes me less."

"Which is precisely why I, _your daughter_, cannot hope to ask for his help," Aurora shot back, chin lowered almost against her breastbone and mismatched eyes narrowed. "Not by myself at any rate."

They stared at each other for several moments, a silent battle of wills warring between them.

"I have already given you one afternoon, Auri, and I have too much work to give another," Loki said. He dropped his challenging grin for a truly apologetic raise of his eyebrows. Aurora, however, was having none of it.

"I thought you might say that," Aurora responded, her smirk only growing. "So I submit for your approval my counter argument: come spend an hour with me in town or I'll tell Mom you're overdoing it again."

Loki's eyes narrowed at her.

"You wouldn't dare," he hissed.

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Aurora responded with an innocent grin.

"You are infuriatingly _stubborn_," Loki accused, even as he pushed his chair back and stood from the desk.

"I know," Aurora said simply, hopping down from her perch. "And you wouldn't have it any other way," she added with a grin. He mock glared at her and shook his head, even as a grin tugged at his lips.

**(xxx)**

Aurora was not accustomed to leaving the palace by the front gate. She spent far more time in the gardens and the surrounding fields than in the city itself. Thrud could spend hours at the stalls in the marketplace, and often did. Aurora, however, found the city to be too crowded for her liking.

Armed with a mission as she was now, though, and an excursion into the bowels of the city was hardly daunting.

Despite her infrequent visits, Aurora was quite capable of finding her way in the dense streets. Even so, she fell back as they descended the steps to the main thoroughfare, allowing her father to lead. Predictably, he swung off the main road and onto a back street at the first opportunity, taking them down a much more pleasantly deserted walkway. Aurora fell into step beside him, glancing at the back of each building as they passed. She began a game of guessing which were store fronts and which residential buildings, sorting them into each category as they passed.

"Why, exactly, does Brokk hate you so much?" Aurora wondered, glancing up at her father. Loki kept his gaze straight ahead, his step slightly too fast to be casual.

"You know that story," he responded shortly.

"I know that you made a bet for the purpose of losing it," Aurora replied. Narrowed eyes darted to her for an instant, but she held his gaze. "Anyway, I know the human version in Mom's books, but like everything else in those versions I'm sure it's only barely true."

"Who says the human's weren't lucky enough to get it right this once?" Loki replied, raising an eyebrow at her. There was a noticeable tightness to the set of his jaw.

"Mom's version says Brokk made Mjolnir as part of the bet," Aurora said, folding her arms and turning to stare at him squarely. "But Mjolnir was forged long before you were old enough to be cheating dwarves."

Loki let out a laugh that was little more than a puff of air through his nose. The tension in his face relaxed and he shook his head.

"The Midgard account says that you bet Brokk he couldn't create something better and more beautiful than the Sons of Ivaldi could."

"The who?" Loki asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It doesn't matter," Aurora said dismissively. "The point is, you bet him he wasn't the greatest craftsman in all the realms. So, he and his brother created a magical boar, a self-replicating ring, and Mjolnir. He won the bet, but when he came to collect his prize - your head - you told him that to do so he'd have to sever your neck and your neck wasn't part of the deal. And then there's a ridiculous bit about how he punished you that I'm sure is exaggerated. That part always is. So, tell me what really happened," Aurora demanded. He made a sharp right down a new alley and she followed, keeping her gaze fixed on his profile.

"You are right in that your mother's people made certain...embellishments to the truth," Loki admitted at last, glancing at her again. He sighed and finally allowed his steps to slow to a more sedate pace, dropping his hands into the pockets of his long coat.

"I was barley older than Thrud. The Snow Festival was approaching and I needed a gift yet for Father. So I enlisted the help of a master blacksmith."

"What did he make for you, the boar or the ring?" Aurora demanded.

"Why does it have to be either?" Loki wondered, tilting his head at her.

"These stories usually get at least some part of it right," Aurora replied with a shrug.

"Draupnir," he said, and he turned his eyes towards the clouds wistfully. "A perfect gold ring. And every ninth night eight new rings would fall like drops of water from it, completely identical to the original. Father was much impressed."

"That is impressive," she agreed. "But that still doesn't answer my original question. Why does Brokk hate you?"

"Because the lad lied to my face," a gruff voice declared. "You don't shake on a bet that you have no intention of honoring."

Loki stepped towards Aurora instinctively, but Aurora only leaned around him to see the owner of the voice. They had come to the end of the muddy alley, at the head of which sat a dark cavernous structure that could only be a smithy. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the glow of a fire in the heart of the darkness within.

A stocky dwarf stood before them, thick arms crossed. He wore only a leather apron over trousers, sweat glistening on the dark and singed hairs that covered his arms. A braided dark brown beard fell down his front, framing his scowling face. Thick braids dangled from his head as well, though the top was bare in a glistening bald dome. In truth the figure was not nearly as small as human stories portrayed, though he barely reached half of Loki's towering height.

Aurora blinked at the blacksmith before them and then glanced up at her father.

"Wait, you didn't actually bet him your head, did you?" she whispered.

"I told you, I was young," Loki hissed back, keeping his eyes on the dwarf.

"And what brings your Highness to darken my doorstep?" Brokk asked. Even as he spoke he turned away from them, stalking to the forge in the corner. He seized a pair of tongs poking from the open mouth of the iron furnace and examined a glowing orange length of metal.

"We have a job for you," Aurora said before her father could answer, stepping around him to duck into the comparative dimness of the smithy. Loki kept pace at her side, ever watchful. The dwarf glanced at them and snorted thorough his squat nose, thrusting the tongs back into the belly of the forge.

"Ah, so now I may be made twice the fool by Loki the Trickster and again by his offspring? I think not."

"So you have no interest in the gold of the royal family, then?" Loki wondered. His head was tilted slightly, his eyes beseeching, but Aurora could see the way his fingers twitched in agitation where his hands were clasped behind his back.

"I have plenty interest, your Highness, only little faith that it will be delivered," Brokk shot back bluntly. Aurora was beginning to wonder if she shouldn't have come alone after all. She brought her palms together. Brokk's dark eyes instantly moved to her hands at the blue light that flared between them, bright in the darkness of the smithy.

"I have something else that might interest you, Master Brokk," Aurora said. "It's damaged, but I believe you can fix it." Brokk turned to move the tongs through the burning coals once more. Even so, she could see the way he kept his head turned slightly, keeping her at the edge of his vision. She smiled sweetly at him.

"Take a look at least, won't you?" She stepped forward and held out the tunic. She could feel the tension in Loki's frame beside her but ignored it. Whatever bad blood lay between her father and this dwarf, she was reasonably sure that she had nothing to fear from the surly blacksmith herself.

He turned to eye the fabric, but hesitated to reach out for it, still watching her warily. Loki sighed loudly and Aurora didn't have to look to know he had rolled his eyes. Brokk shot him a glare and then snatched up the garment. He turned back to examine it in the light of the open forge, running his fingers over the torn fabric. He turned it over once, twice, then turned his gaze back to Aurora.

"Where did you get this?" he asked. Something in his voice had changed, become more serious and less distrustful.

"It belongs to a friend," she said easily. He frowned at her, eyes narrowing once more. "Why?" She asked, tilting her head much like her father had earlier.

"It..." Brokk glanced down at the fabric again then shook his head. "It looks like my own work. But I did not make this. So I'll ask you again, where did you get this?"

Aurora blinked and drew her head back, staring at the armor tunic that the drawf held in his stubby fingers. Brokk was well known in his trade and willing to cater to just about anyone with the gold to pay. His armor and the base tunics that contained the magic to summon it, however, were items created only for a select few - namely the Warriors Three and members of the royal family.

"I don't know where it came from, not yet," she told him honestly. "But I'll be sure to ask." She glanced at her father and then folded her arms. "Now I have a question for you, Master Brokk. You could not really have expected to win the head of one of the crowned princes of Asgard, no matter what the circumstances of any bet. So what is really the cause of all this animosity between yourself and my father?"

"Aurora," Loki muttered, but she paid him no attention, her eyes instead on the dwarf before her. Brokk stared hard at Loki for a few moments and then shook his head.

"I said before, you do not shake on a bet that you have no intention of honoring," Brokk said icily. "I learned the worth of the word of Loki son of Odin that day." He spat on the straw-strewn ground.

"Watch your tongue, dwarf," Loki growled. Aurora was quick to butt in when Brokk opened his mouth again.

"But you followed through on it," Aurora said. "You made Draupnir and delivered it. Why go through the effort when you knew you'd be double crossed?" For the first time Brokk looked uncertain of his answer. He heaved a sigh that shuddered through his shoulders.

"I suppose enough time has passed now," he muttered to himself, then raised his head to Aurora. "I went to the palace the day after the deal was struck. To lodge a complaint. But I was intercepted before I could see the King." His eyes darted to Loki. "By Queen Frigga. When I told her the story she asked me to complete the work. To treat it as a commission from the King himself." He shrugged. "And she agreed to pay me twice my weight in gold."

Silence rang through the smithy at that. Brokk shifted his tongs again and Aurora took the opportunity to glance at her father while his back was turned. Loki's eyes were wide, his lips slightly parted. His fingers had ceased to fidget behind his back and instead were clasped tightly together.

"Well," Aurora said loudly, stepping up to the large, blackened anvil that stood between herself and Brokk. "Do you think you can fix it?" she asked. Brokk eyed her carefully for a moment and then held his calloused hand out over the anvil. Aurora grasped it firmly, feeling his thick fingers wrap around her wrist.

"What is your price?" she asked. To her surprise, he only shook his head.

"Only tell me where this came from. That will be price enough," he said gruffly. Aurora shot him a wide grin and nodded.

"Deal."

**(xxx)**

They shook once, eyes locked, grinning at each other. Then Aurora released her grip and took a step back. She snatched up the skirt of her dress and dipped into a curtsey.

"We thank you for your time, Master Brokk and we await your word that the project is finished."

With that, she turned, shot her father a mischievous grin, and marched out of the smithy.

Brokk watched her go with his clever eyes.

"If I may say so, your Highness, your daughter is quite impressive."

Loki only shook his head. He would never admit it, but the whole encounter had left him slightly light headed.

"She does love to remind me," he said. Then he executed a stiff but princely bow to the dwarf and turned on his heel to follow Aurora. His long legs devoured the distance she had gained in only a few strides.

"So that's why you wanted me to accompany you? To settle a centuries long feud between myself and a dwarf?" He raised an eyebrow at her and attempted to keep his lips from twitching into a smile. In the latter he did not quite succeed.

"Not exactly," Aurora admitted with a careless shrug. "I told you, I wanted to know what really happened between you two. I figured I had a better chance of that if I got you both in the same room. You always find an excuse to avoid Brokk when he comes to the palace to deliver his work." She turned just enough to give him an accusing look with her one brown eye.

He let out a breathless laugh and turned his face to the sky.

"You never do cease to amaze me, Bean," he said. Aurora giggled in return and grinned up at him.

"Good. Let's hope I never do."

**(xxx)**

Their talk wondered aimlessly after that, and Aurora did not fail to notice how much higher her father's spirits were compared to when they had left. She even talked him into taking a light lunch with her before he finally excused himself from her company to disappear back to his tower.

Feeling accomplished and more than pleased with herself, Aurora's feet turned to the healing rooms once more, eager to see if their strange guest had awoken from her drugged sleep yet.

The second time Aurora entered the healing rooms, their guest was indeed awake and looking much more composed. Her gray eyes were no longer wide with animalistic fear, her body no longer restless. She sat quietly propped up by pillows in her bed, her good hand folded in her lap. She had allowed her hair to fall over part of her face, hiding the worst of the bruising. Her one visible eye flicked up as Aurora entered and then quickly lowered to the bedspread once more.

Ladies in white bustled about the room completing daily chores, but Ella seemed determined not to look at anyone.

"You're back," Ella said, and even her voice was steadier now.

"You're awake," Aurora countered, coming closer. "And in much better shape this time, I see." Ella took a deep breath and nodded.

"I apologize for earlier. Waking up _here_...it was a lot to take in."

Aurora nodded and came to stand at the end of the bed, looking down at her. Even in the lose white gown the healers had garbed her in, it was easy to see how unnaturally thin the young woman before her was. She hadn't noticed it in her face due to the damage, but now that she looked her cheeks were rather hollow, her chin a bit too pointy, her eyes too sunken even for her bruises.

"Your reaction was perfectly natural," Aurora assured her. "But, I would like to ask if you remember what happened to you. If that's alright."

Ella glanced up at her, those impossibly gray eyes striking Aurora just as much as before. The wounded young woman opened her mouth just as footsteps rang from the doorway. Ella's gaze shifted and her eyes widened. Aurora turned to see her uncle stride into the room, grinning like a beam of sunshine.

"Well, so it's true. You are back amongst the living," Thor said in greeting, passing Aurora to move up to the beside itself. That look was back in Ella's eyes again, the same one she'd given Eir earlier. Somewhere between shock and relief. Tinged with something darker too. Thor, however, did not seem to notice. Instead he took up her uninjured hand in greeting.

"I am-"

"King Thor," Ella breathed. She closed her eyes briefly and when they opened again they seemed paler somehow. "I knew you in a different life," she whispered.

Thor froze, bent over her with her delicate hand in his massive palm. His eyes searched her face for a moment, but Ella only stared impassively back. Almost mechanically, he bent forward to finish his initial motion, pressing his lips to the back of her hand gently before straightening and releasing her.

"You seem to have the advantage of me, then," he said.

"My name is Ella," their guest said softly, still watching his face. Aurora glanced between them, surprised that the other girl was managing to hold eye contact for so long with how skittish she had been thus far. Both of them seemed to have forgotten she was even there.

"My niece told me that you were found in an impossible battlefield. In the middle of nowhere after a very strange storm," Thor said carefully.

"Is that what happened?" Ella asked, and the ghost of a smile tugged at her lips. "Well, that is strange then, isn't it?" She licked her split lips, clearing her throat. "This storm you speak of, I believe I know what it was."

"My brother's wife believes it was the product of a tear between worlds. It is a phenomenon we've seen before, though not for many years."

Ella closed her eyes for a moment at those words, a crease forming between her eyebrows. She took a few deep breaths and the lines on her forehead slowly faded back into impassivity. Only then did she open her eyes again.

"She sounds like a smart woman," Ella responded softly. "As far as I can tell you, she's correct. It seems I...fell through a crack, as it were." She raised her chin to look up at the King, letting her hair fall away from her blackened eye to stare at him squarely.

"You might find this hard to believe," she said and there was a tone to her voice that Aurora almost recognized - it was the closest thing to playful that she had yet heard from this strange girl.

"Try me," Thor said simply. His blue eyes glittered down at her. Aurora felt herself leaning forward over the foot of the bed, her fingers gripping the low wooden panel.

"From what I've seen so far, I believe I come from...a kind of alternative world to this one. An Asgard - a universe - that is perhaps identical in its beginnings but which went astray at some point." Ella looked down and cleared her throat. When her eyes returned to Thor's once more they were hardened granite beneath drawn black eyebrows.

"I come from a world that was ravaged by a monster. A beast who thought himself a god. He destroyed the nine realms one by one and when he finally came for Asgard he had done so much damage that reality itself had begun to buckle and rip apart."

She faltered, only for a moment but long enough that Aurora saw it clearly. Ella shook her head slightly and cleared her throat once more, finally tearing her eyes from Thor's and staring instead at the bed sheets covering her legs.

"Who was this monster?" Aurora said in barely a whisper. The sound of the fountain in the middle of the healing rooms was suddenly so loud behind her. The entire world seemed to be holding its breath. Ella raised her head and locked her stormy gaze with Aurora's again, and just as before she felt herself stop breathing.

"His name was Thanos."


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: I apologize profusely that this is so late in coming. Truthfully I've had it mostly written for some time now, but RL intervened and rudely demanded my full attention. Thanks again go out to everyone who has left me such lovely reviews! This chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but trying to force another scene into it felt unnatural and besides, I've kept you waiting long enough. _

_Leave me a review!_

* * *

"You belong...in another place. I don't know where or how...I'll figure it out eventually."

-_ The City on the Edge of Forever_

_Star Trek: The Original Series_

Aurora watched the bruised and battered girl carefully. Ella sat as if made of stone, staring at her lap and completely ignoring the sense of dread filling the room like smoke. Aurora, meanwhile, drifted to the next bed on wooden legs and claimed a seat.

Her stomach was tying itself in knots and her fingers pulled restlessly at the fabric of the bedspread beneath her. All the while she kept her gaze fixed on Ella, trying to decide what this feeling was that welled up inside of her whenever they looked at each other. Anxiety and not-quite-fear and, buried deep, something else as well. Almost familiarity, but it was like looking in a mirror and not quite recognizing the reflection.

Ella stared at her uninjured hand, her fingers running restlessly over the weave of the blanket covering her legs. She took a deep, measured breath and let it out again slowly, her rigid shoulders deflating with the motion.

"I suppose I had better start at the beginning," she said. Her voice was still pitched low, but loud enough for her small audience to hear.

"Thanos cares only for destruction and death," she began. Somehow the name rang hollow in her voice, almost metallic when she said it. "Whatever higher motivation he may have had, we never discovered it. He tried once before to destroy the realms with the tesseract and a human sorcerer."

"I remember it well," Thor said, an edge as hard and sharp as steal to his voice. Aurora's gaze left Ella's for an instant, shifting to the hard lines of her uncle's face. She was not ignorant of the story Ella was referring to, nor the pain it had caused her family.

"He laid low after that, for more than a few centuries. He waited for your allies on Midgard to die off." Ella paused, shaking her head and clenching the fingers of her good hand into a fist. "Thanos is no god, not really," she hissed. "But he somehow found a way to artificially enhance his strength, his speed, his lifetime...and so he remained, plotting in the shadows." Her grip relaxed, tension draining from her body as quickly as it had come.

"Then he came for the tesseract again, and this time he succeeded."

Aurora's breathing stalled. She noticed Thor sit up straighter from the corner of her eye.

"How?" her uncle breathed.

"He sent his right hand - a being we only ever knew as The Other," Ella said. For the first time she raised her eyes from her lap, though she still refused to look at either of them. Instead, her stony gray gaze sought out the burbling fountain in the center of the room.

"The Other attacked more directly than we had ever imagined. He penetrated the palace itself, kidnapped a child." Ella's gaze flicked to Thor for the first time since she began her story. "He forced your hand. You gave him the tesseract."

All the color had drained from Thor's bronzed face and his jaw was set tight enough to make the muscles in his neck stand out thick as cords. He stared back at Ella, his blue eyes hard as winter sky, but said nothing.

"How do you know all this?" Aurora blurted. Hard gray and blue moved to her and she suddenly had to fight the instinct to duck her head. When had she become an intruder to this discussion?

Ella searched her face for a moment, and Aurora had the uncomfortable sensation of being dissected by that stormy gaze.

"My father was a palace guard," Ella said at last. "I grew up playing in these halls, in those gardens." She nodded first at the golden doors then the billowing curtains of the balcony opposite them. "Same as you."

Ella turned away, staring straight ahead at the fountain once more.

"After that, there was only silence again, for some years," Ella picked up her story quietly. "We were watchful, but Thanos was careful. He hid himself from Heimdall and let no word slip of his intentions. So when he suddenly reappeared on Midgard, we were unprepared." Ella licked her lips, avoiding the angry scab forming where her lower lip was split in two.

"Somehow...he had absorbed the tesseract into himself." Her voice was barely a husky whisper, her eyes unfocused and fixed on some scene of horror that only she could see. "He didn't need pawns or minions or even an army anymore. Now, he really was a god."

Ella lapsed into silence after that. Her breathing had grown fast and somewhat erratic, her already pale complexion graying by the second. The hand in her lap had begun to tremble lightly.

"Should I get Eir?" Aurora whispered, leaning forward to stand.

"No," Ella said quickly, shaking her head. She took a shaky breath and offered Aurora a poor imitation of a smile. "She'll only knock me out again and I would finish this first."

Aurora reluctantly sank back down on the bed, watching their guest closely. Ella closed her eyes for a moment and took a steadier breath. She nodded once to herself and when her eyes reopened slowly they seemed brighter and a shade darker.

"Thanos destroyed the realms one by one. Asgard was left untouched through most of it - as a mockery I think." Ella turned to face Thor once more. "You gave sanctuary to refugees from all the known realms and a few other worlds we had not even been aware of, but which Thanos ravaged as well. You formed alliances with these survivors, and with any of the realms still intact. You mounted a final resistance against Thanos. But he...he knew that was what you would do all along."

Ella's shoulders slumped and she dropped her gaze again. "When he reached Asgard, his strategy abruptly changed. Instead of a direct assault, he gave us plagues of his own creation. He poisoned the water and the crops and set sickness among the animals. And then among the Aesir." Ella swallowed hard and leaned back against the pillows, no longer able to sit upright. Aurora did stand this time.

"We get the idea," Aurora soothed, already glancing over her shoulder for the master healer.

"No. You don't," Ella whispered. Aurora turned back to watch her lick her ashen lips again.

"We were prepared for swords and firearms and explosions. What we got instead was thirst and starvation and sickness. And only then, after our ranks had been decimated, did he truly attack." Her voice, barely a whisper, trailed into nothing and though she swallowed thickly it seemed she could not gain it back. Sweat shined off Ella's pale forehead and her eyes drifted closed against another shaky breath.

"Eir!" Aurora called, unable to stand the horrid look of the other girl any longer. Eir came bustling over and gasped at the sight of her patient. She immediately set about scolding both Aurora and her royal uncle for working the poor girl into such a state, but Aurora barely heard her, her eyes fixed on Ella's drawn face. She was shivering lightly now, lines of tension pulling at her forehead and around her blackened eyes.

Eir hurried to her cabinet and returned with a cup that Ella did not hesitate to reach blindly for and drink down in three lusty gulps. Nearly as soon as she had finished the lines eased from her face and her chest rose and fell more regularly. Satisfied that her patient was once again resting properly, Eir wasted no time shooing Aurora and her uncle out the golden doors. Aurora raised no argument, and Thor himself seemed to be too deep in thought to care. He drifted across the room as if moving through a dream and paid no mind when the door slammed behind them.

"What do you think of her story?" Aurora asked softly. Thor blinked at her, as if seeing her there for the first time, and then ran a hand over his eyes.

"You think she was lying?" he asked.

Late afternoon sunlight slanted through the window, casting deep shadows over half of Thor's face. Aurora shook her head and glanced at their own shadows thrown against the golden doors.

"No...but that certainly wasn't the whole story either," she said softly. Doubt tickled at the back of her mind, half-formed seeds of suspicion. Nothing concrete, however, nothing to put a name to.

"It's enough for now," Thor replied. His voice was hardened now, burdened. The tone of a king. When she glanced at him again in the dying light there was a look to his blue eyes that she had rarely seen in her life - a life of peace. She saw worry in those oceanic depths.

**(xxx)**

Jane wandered into the garden, lit now only by moonlight. The silvery glow landed on ferns and leaves and left weird shadows to spread across her path. She knew this path by heart, however, and did not require full light to know her way.

Barefoot in the warmth of the night, the skirt of her light gown rustled softly against the path as she made her way down the main cobbles. She reached the spot where a much smaller path branched out to her left, curling towards a low wooden door set into a stone wall, covered over with curtains of ivy. She paused out of habit, but continued on after only a beat. Her husband's garden was not her destination tonight.

The path meandered lazily through a sea of dark flowers, their petals glowing eerily in the moonlight. Stone archways separated roses from tulips from daffodils, all of them waving to her in the gentle night breeze. It was only when she passed the last archway, where the path ended and the ground opened up into untamed grassland, that she found what she was looking for.

This final archway rested beside a wide oak tree, crowning the crest of a sloping hill. Wildflowers grew in scattered patches beneath the oak's swaying branches, or so it seemed at first. If anyone were to pay any real attention to the hill, however, it soon became quite obvious that there was an order to the flowers that wildflowers never obeyed.

Jane's bare feet left the cobbles of the path and stepped into the soft grass, pacing towards the tree. She rounded the wide trunk and was not at all surprised to find Aurora propped against it on the other side, bathed in the full light of the moon. The girl's mismatched gaze shifted to her for a moment before sliding back to the field laid out before her.

Jane huffed and put her hands on her hips.

"Do you know that both you and your father left me to fend for myself at dinner. Again?" she asked.

Aurora blinked, some life coming back into her face. She tilted her head to look up at her mother fully, her gaze sharper this time. Jane had the impression that Aurora was only seeing her there for the first time.

"I lost track of time," Aurora offered instead of an apology. Jane raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at the moon for a moment.

"And what time did you think it was?"

Aurora glanced away sheepishly, but it was too playful to be true remorse and Jane knew it.

"Mother, please. I've already been the undeserving victim of Eir's wrath today. For two days running, I remind you. Must you abuse me too?" Aurora asked in the airy tone she reserved for unnecessary dramatics.

"Mustn't I?" Jane retorted. She took a step closer and gathered up her thin summer skirt to sit beside her daughter. Aurora stiffened suddenly.

"Watch it!" the girl cried and when Jane looked again she realized she had nearly sat on a small red flower that had sprouted up beside Aurora's chosen spot. The girl was leaning over it, her hands thrown out protectively. Jane shifted further to the side and settled herself on the grass.

"You know you could have a space in the gardens. Wherever you wanted," Jane said, but it was only out of habit. Jane had long ago given up trying to understand why her daughter preferred to cultivate her small, haphazard garden along the outer wall of the garden proper rather than inside.

"I like it better out here." Aurora gave her customary reply. Jane nodded and leaned forward a bit, wanting a better look at her daughter's newest addition.

The plant was small, nothing like the towering roses, tulips or daffodils she had passed on her way here. It was not even quite a foot tall. The body of it looked more like a weed, bushy outcroppings thrusting out in all directions. And at the top, a single blossom turned its face towards the watching moon, blood red petals around a black center.

It took her a moment to shift through her mental files and put a name to the stoic flower.

"Adonis flos," she said.

"I prefer Pheasant's-eye myself," Aurora said with a wicked grin. "It's a bit more suitably grim, don't you think?"

Jane only stared at her, a question reflected in her brown eyes. Aurora's lips slipped and she leaned back more heavily against the tree. She turned her face up to the moon once more, her fingers playing with the bushy plant beside her gently.

"Our guest woke up today," Aurora said quietly. "Her name is Ella. And you were right. She came from another dimension - another Asgard."

Jane's heart seemed to stall at the name and when it started again, it was beating far too fast. She tore her gaze from Aurora's profile so her daughter wouldn't notice, unconsciously raising the fingers of one hand to her lips as she looked out over the silvery grass.

The name had instantly set her mind to firing a whirlwind of connections, and she berated herself silently for them just as quickly. Surely it was only a coincidence: a girl named Ella from an alternate Asgard. It would do no good to jump to conclusions. Besides, she was a scientist at her core, and as such she needed more data than simply a name before she could assume anything.

That thought finally seemed to help her heart retreat from her throat, but she could still feel the tingle of feverish hope in the tips of her fingers and the top of her head.

It wasn't until she had taken a deep breath through her nose that she realized with a guilty jolt that Aurora was still speaking.

"- Thor will fill you in, but the things she said...the things she must have seen. I can't stop thinking about them, Mother. War and sickness and death, here! Here on Asgard!" Aurora lowered her head, letting her hair fall over her face.

Feeling steadier now, Jane reached out to brush the raven locks behind her daughter's ear.

"Whatever that poor girl has been through, she's here now," Jane said gently. "And we will do everything we can to help her. You know that."

Aurora nodded and looked at her mother with eyes, brown and green, that seemed too bright in the moonlight.

"I know. It was just...hard to listen to."

Aurora shrugged and seemed to gather herself, rolling her shoulders back. The next instant she smiled and just like that the worry and the pain had passed. Jane had spent more than enough time around her husband and her daughter to know it was not truly gone, however. Jane had no idea if this pigheaded independence (more solitude really) was a Jotun trait or not, but it was equally frustrating no matter if she saw it in Loki or Aurora, and she saw it in both from time to time. Still, that was perhaps a battle for another night.

"Come on, it's time you were in bed," Jane said, standing and dusting her skirt off. Aurora snorted indelicately even as she stood.

"Tell me, do you plan to send Father to bed like a child too?" Aurora asked teasingly. Jane's eyes glinted dangerously as she put her back to the moon.

"Oh, don't you worry. He's next."

**(xxx)**

He drifted.

There was no real cause for hurry. Certainly not now.

Thanos floated in the blackness between stars. The airless cold did not touch him, indeed did not even hinder him. He closed his eyes and let himself drift further into the void. She was here somewhere, where no spark of life could hope to exist. If he remained at the heart of the void long enough, he would find her. He need only wait.


End file.
